


Can't See the Sun

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The World Turned Upside Down. [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Shiro disappears, kerberos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 06:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12007485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: The plane Shiro named Kerberos goes down, carrying Shiro, and Sam and Matt Holt. None of them are found.





	Can't See the Sun

“Dare you to sniff that chemical.”

Keith raised one eyebrow at his lab partner. “The one our teacher specifically told us not to sniff because it makes your nose feel like it’s on fire?”

Lance grinned. “That’s the one!”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Nose? Burning? No thanks.”

“Coward.”

“ _You_ do it if you’re so manly then.”

“And ruin _this_ fine specimen?” Lance tapped his nose. “No way.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go dump our chemicals.” He headed to the back of the classroom.

“Class?”

Lance looked to his teacher. Looked like they had another war report. Those happened _way_ too much these days. It almost felt like they might be about to have a third world war. Lance wondered what poor battalion had been demolished today, what wing of planes had gone down, which fleet had run into mines.

“Today a plane carrying only doctors and medical supplies crashed. It wasn’t near the fighting, but was ambushed and went down. Most doctors were accounted for, but the pilot and two doctors are missing.”

Lance closed his eyes for a moment. Poor souls. If they weren’t dead then they’d been captured, and _no one_ deserved that. That was a low-down move, attacking people who were practically civilians, not to mention some poor pilot like Shiro, fresh out of flight school.

“The plane number was 24601.”

A loud _crash_ and the sound of breaking glass sounded from the back of the classroom. Everybody’s heads swiveled to look at Keith, who’d dropped the beakers of chemicals. His face was paler than snow, and his eyes had grown twice their size as he stared, frozen in place, at their teacher. Lance had a sudden, horrible feeling that he knew whose plane that had been.

Keith’s world shattered into a million pieces. His teacher was ushering him under the chemicals shower and instructing him to take off his boots, but he barely heard her. His whole understanding of the universe was falling to pieces as the realization that _Shiro was gone_ and _he wasn’t coming back_ caught up to him.

 

 

“Keith? Son? I assume you heard…”

“He’s gone,” Keith mumbled, “He’s gone.”

“The Shiroganes called to tell me, um… it was definitely his plane. They, uh… found his arm. Nothing else.”

Keith closed his eyes as a wave of grief and nausea swept over him. What else could add on to his pain?

He heard a ping from his phone and saw that it was from Katie. It read, simply: _the doctors were Dad and Matt._

Of _course_ they were. Of _course_ the universe had to slap him in the face as hard as possible. When hadn’t it? Why _shouldn’t_ he lose two of his oldest and best friends? If there was a _possibility_ that something could go wrong, something _would_ go wrong. It was how everything seemed to work. He couldn’t ever just be a normal teenager with a normal life.

 

 

 

“Hey, man.” Hunk pulled Keith up into a hug.

“Ribs,” Keith squeaked, and Hunk released him.

“Sorry, I just… I know how much they meant to you, and I think you needed a hug. Like a really big hug.”

“Where’s Katie?”

Hunk looked at the ground. “Bathroom. She won’t talk to me. I have a distinct feeling that she’s crying, but I can’t go in there.”

“Sure. It’s her brother’s and dad’s funeral. She doesn’t need to be ashamed to cry.” Keith turned and marched to the bathroom, missing Hunk’s softly spoken words.

“You don’t need to be either.”

 

 

Keith knocked on the girl’s bathroom door. “Katie?”

There was a sniffle. “Go away.”

“It’s Keith.”

“Go away.”

“C’mon, open up.”

“Go away.”

“Katie, I can’t go in there after you, come out.”

“You are lucky this is a one-person bathroom, or you would get smacked by anyone coming out.”

“Please, Katie, come on.”

“No.”

“Everybody’s waiting for you.”

“All the more reason to stay here.”

Keith rattled the handle, but she’d locked it. “Katie?”

“I’m scared Keith.” He could hear muffled sobs on the other side of the door. “I’m really, _really_ scared. My dad and Matt are gone, and I don’t- I don’t know what I’m going to do without them, and Shiro’s also gone, and- and- and-”

“I know. I know I didn’t have the same relationship with Matt as you did, but losing them… I _feel_ like I’ve lost brothers.”

Katie let out a strangled laugh. “We’ve both got only one parent and lost our brothers. What losers we are. What’re we going to do with ourselves?”

Keith slid down the door so that he was sitting with his back to it, leaning the back of his head against the hard wood, unaware that on the other side Katie was doing the same. “We’ve’ got each other. We have Hunk and Lance. We’ll keep on living.”

“Live and remember,” Katie said softly.

“One day this war will be over. It can’t go on forever. And we’ll survive.”

“We’ll remember and not repeat ourselves. We won’t make the same mistakes.”

“No,” Keith agreed, “We’ll make better choices. And we’ll keep this from ever happening again. Death comes for us all, but we don’t need to make it come early.”

 

 

 

Keith stared at the three graves. Two with nothing in them, one with the cremated remains of Shiro’s arm. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Three people, not their time. Two hadn’t even been soldiers. Doctors, there to help the injured. To help _everyone_. Not fair, not right. A single tear trekked its way down his face.

Katie clung to him, tears pouring out of her eyes like a faucet as people left, patting shoulders and whispering condolences that Keith barely heard. Even his dad went back to the car, telling him to come when he was ready. Only Keith, Katie and Mrs. Holt remained, Mrs. Holt quietly letting tears stream down her face as she surveyed the graves of her husband and eldest son. Katie just sobbed into Keith’s suit jacket, one of his arms around her.

Frustration built in Keith’s throat, making him want to scream at the unfairness of it all. Katie clutched him tighter, and all of the anger dissipated, leaving behind only a deep sorrow.

And he let the tears fall.

**Author's Note:**

> That was depressing. I need to go write myself some fluff.


End file.
